Back in June 1991, Phil Zimmermann wrote an essaythatperfectly nailedwhy it's so important to safeguard your privacy, even if you have nothing to hide.It's especially prescient against the backdrop of Apple's ongoing fight over encryption withthe FBI, and asa US Senator reportedly workson a bill that would make it a crime for companies not to have a "backdoor" to decipher private messages.Interestingly enough, Zimmerman himself became the target of a three-year legal battle after he released "Pretty Good Privacy" for free, worldwide. PGP made it much easier for regular people to protect their communications, and the governmentviewing use of encryption as a weaponwent after him using arms export controls.The case was eventually dropped in 1996, though the fight betweenthe privacy-conscious and government interest in spying on criminals has continued into today.The government often argues that encryption helpsterrorists, drug dealers, and sexual predators. But Zimmerman argues in his essay that most people take their offline privacy very seriously, yet it would be ludicrous to lump them in with criminals and terrorists."Privacy is as apple-pie as the Constitution," the technology legendwrote.Zimmermann writes of various legal wranglings and government plans to fight the "crypto wars" of the 1990s in his essay, but it is these two paragraphs that brilliantly illustrate what is at stake when we think of opening a "backdoor" to online privacy:"Perhaps you think your email is legitimate enough that encryption is unwarranted. If you really are a law-abiding citizen with nothing to hide, then why don't you always send your paper mail on postcards' Why not submit to drug testing on demand' Why require a warrant for police searches of your house' Are you trying to hide something' If you hide your mail inside envelopes, does that mean you must be a subversive or a drug dealer, or maybe a paranoid nut' Do law-abiding citizens have any need to encrypt their email'What if everyone believed that law-abiding citizens should use postcards for their mail' If a nonconformist tried to assert his privacy by using an envelope for his mail, it would draw suspicion. Perhaps the authorities would open his mail to see what he's hiding. Fortunately, we don't live in that kind of world, because everyone protects most of their mail with envelopes. So no one draws suspicion by asserting their privacy with an envelope. There's safety in numbers. Analogously, it would be nice if everyone routinely used encryption for all their email, innocent or not, so that no one drew suspicion by asserting their email privacy with encryption. Think of it as a form of solidarity."The use of encryption often comes up after a terrorist attack or high-profile criminal case, even when it is not clear those responsible even used the technology. But perhapshisviews can be summed up even more succinctly, from a letter he wrote shortly after the terrorist attacks on 9/11:"Strongcryptography does more good for a democratic society than harm, even if it can be used by terrorists. Read my lips: I have no regrets about developing PGP."Now check out hisfull 1991 essay here >Join the conversation about this storyNOW WATCH: Tim Cook: Apple won't hack iPhone used by the San Bernardino shooter
Click here to read full news..
